ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Lee Cronin - Chemist
A professor of chemistry, nanoscience and chemical complexity, Lee Cronin and his research group investigate how chemistry can revolutionize modern technology and even create life.

Why you should listen

Lee Cronin's lab at the University of Glasgow does cutting-edge research into how complex chemical systems, created from non-biological building blocks, can have real-world applications with wide impact. At TEDGlobal 2012, Cronin shared some of the lab's latest work: creating a 3D printer for molecules. This device -- which has been prototyped -- can download plans for molecules and print them, in the same way that a 3D printer creates objects. In the future, Cronin says this technology could potentially be used to print medicine -- cheaply and wherever it is needed. As Cronin says: "What Apple did for music, I'd like to do for the discovery and distribution of prescription drugs."

At TEDGlobal 2011, Cronin shared his lab's bold plan to create life. At the moment, bacteria is the minimum unit of life -- the smallest chemical unit that can undergo evolution. But in Cronin's emerging field, he's thinking about forms of life that won't be biological. To explore this, and to try to understand how life itself originated from chemicals, Cronin and others are attempting to create truly artificial life from completely non-biological chemistries that mimic the behavior of natural cells. They call these chemical cells, or Chells. 

Cronin's research interests also encompass self-assembly and self-growing structures -- the better to assemble life at nanoscale. At the University of Glasgow, this work on crystal structures is producing a raft of papers from his research group. He says: "Basically one of my longstanding research goals is to understand how life emerged on planet Earth and re-create the process."

Read the papers referenced in his TEDGlobal 2102 talk:

Integrated 3D-printed reactionware for chemical synthesis and analysis, Nature Chemistry

Configurable 3D-Printed millifluidic and microfluidic ‘lab on a chip’ reactionware devices, Lab on a Chip

More profile about the speaker
Lee Cronin | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2012

Lee Cronin: Print your own medicine

Ли Kронин: Эм бэлдмэлээ хэвлэн гарга

Filmed:
1,045,687 views

Химич Ли Kронин эд зүйлсийн оронд молекул хэвлэн гаргадаг 3 хэмжээст хэвлэгч машин дээр ажиллаж байна. Химийн бэхээр эм бэлдмэлээ хэвлэн гаргах урт хугацааны ашиглагдах агуу боломж.
- Chemist
A professor of chemistry, nanoscience and chemical complexity, Lee Cronin and his research group investigate how chemistry can revolutionize modern technology and even create life. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:16
Organic chemists make molecules,
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Органик химичид
00:19
very complicated molecules,
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маш нарийн төвөгтэй
молекулуудыг хийхдээ
00:21
by chopping up a big molecule into small molecules
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том молекулуудыг
жижиг хэсгүүдэд хуваадаг,
бас эсрэг инженерчлэл хийдэг.
00:24
and reverse engineering.
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00:26
And as a chemist,
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Химичийн хувьд
00:27
one of the things I wanted to ask my research group a couple of years ago is,
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өөрийн судалгааны багаас хэдэн жилийн өмнө
асуухыг хүссэн зүйл маань
00:31
could we make a really cool universal chemistry set?
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бид үнэхээр мундаг химийн бүрдэл
гаргаж чадах уу гэсэн асуулт байлаа.
00:35
In essence, could we "app" chemistry?
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Мөн чанартаа бид химийн хэрэглээний
програм гаргаж чадах уу л гэсэн үг.
00:40
Now what would this mean, and how would we do it?
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Энэ яг ямар утгатай вэ?
Бид үүнийг яаж хийх вэ?
00:43
Well to start to do this,
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Үүнийг хийхийн тулд
00:45
we took a 3D printer
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бид гурван хэмжээст
хэвлэгчийг ашиглан
00:47
and we started to print our beakers and our test tubes on one side
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лабораторийн шилэн аяга,
туршилтын хүзүү шилийг хэвлэж эхэлсэн.
00:51
and then print the molecule at the same time on the other side
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Мөн нөгөө хэсэгт зэрэг молекулуудыг хэвлэн
00:55
and combine them together in what we call reactionware.
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тэдгээрийг хамтад нь
хариу үйлдэл үзүүлэгч гэж нэрлэсэн.
00:58
And so by printing the vessel and doing the chemistry at the same time,
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Нэгэн зэрэг шилэн бумба хэвлэж
химийн хувилалыг хийснээр
01:03
we may start to access this universal toolkit of chemistry.
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химийн энэхүү универсал хэрэгслүүрийн
эхлэлийг тавьж байж болох юм.
01:08
Now what could this mean?
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Энэ нь юу гэсэн үг вэ?
01:09
Well if we can embed biological and chemical networks like a search engine,
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Хэрэв хайлтын хэрэгсэл шиг биологийн болон
химийн сүлжээг суулгаж чадах юм бол
01:15
so if you have a cell that's ill that you need to cure
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хэрэв танд эмчлэх шаардлагатай
өвчний эс байлаа гэхэд
эсвэл устгахыг хэрэгтэй
бактери байлаа гэхэд
01:18
or bacteria that you want to kill,
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01:20
if you have this embedded in your device
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хэрэв та ийм зүйлийг
төхөөрөмжиндөө суулгасан
01:22
at the same time, and you do the chemistry,
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бас яг тэр үед нь
химийн хувирал хийх юм бол
01:24
you may be able to make drugs in a new way.
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шинэ арга замаар эм үйлдвэрлэх
боломжтой болох юм.
01:28
So how are we doing this in the lab?
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Бид ийм зүйлийг лабораторид
хэрхэн хийж байгаа вэ?
01:30
Well it requires software, it requires hardware
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Үүнд мэдээж програм, техник хангамж
01:33
and it requires chemical inks.
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мөн химийн хор шаардагдана.
01:36
And so the really cool bit is,
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Ийм мундаг нь юу вэ гэхээр
01:37
the idea is that we want to have a universal set of inks
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бид ийм универсал бэхнүүдийг
01:40
that we put out with the printer,
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хэвлэгч машиндаа хийн
01:43
and you download the blueprint, the organic chemistry for that molecule
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ноорог буюу тэрхүү молекулын
органик химийн бүрдлийг татаж аваад
01:47
and you make it in the device.
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та өөрийн төхөөрөмжиндөө хийнэ.
01:50
And so you can make your molecule in the printer using this software.
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Та ийм програм хангамжийг ашиглан
өөрийн молекулыг хэвлэн гаргаж авна.
01:55
So what could this mean?
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Энэ нь юу гэсэн үг вэ гэвэл
01:58
Well, ultimately, it could mean that you could print your own medicine.
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эцсийн үр дүнд
та өөрийн эмийг хэвлэж чадна.
02:03
And this is what we're doing in the lab at the moment.
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Бид үүнийг лабораторидоо хийж байгаа.
02:05
But to take baby steps to get there,
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Гэхдээ зорилгодоо хүрэхийн тулд
02:06
first of all we want to look at drug design and production,
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эхлээд бид эмний дизайн болон
үйлдвэрлэлийг судлах хэрэгтэй.
02:09
or drug discovery and manufacturing.
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Эсвэл эм шинээр бүтээх эсвэл боловсруулах.
02:12
Because if we can manufacture it after we've discovered it,
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Хэрвээ бид олж нээсэн эмээ
боловсруулж чадах юм бол
02:15
we could deploy it anywhere.
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үүнийгээ хаана ч түгээж чадна.
02:17
You don't need to go to the chemist anymore.
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Та химич дээр очих
шаардлагагүй болно.
02:19
We can print drugs at point of need.
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Хэрэгтэй болсон үедээ л
эмээ хэвлээд гаргачихна.
02:22
We can download new diagnostics.
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Бид шинэ оношоо бас татаад авчихна.
02:24
Say a new super bug has emerged.
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Шинэ нян гарлаа гэхэд
02:26
You put it in your search engine,
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хайлтын хэрэгсэлдээ оруулаад
02:28
and you create the drug to treat the threat.
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тэр аюулыг эмчлэх эмийг бүтээнэ.
02:31
So this allows you on-the-fly molecular assembly.
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Энэ танд молеkулыг шуурхай
угсрах боломж олгоно.
02:35
But perhaps for me the core bit going into the future
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Гэвч миний хувьд
ирээдүйд хийх гол зүйл бол
02:38
is this idea of taking your own stem cells,
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өөрийн язгуур эсийг аван энэ санааг
02:41
with your genes and your environment,
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ген болон байгаль орчинд
02:43
and you print your own personal medicine.
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өөрөө өөрийн гэсэн эмийг хэвлэх юм.
02:46
And if that doesn't seem fanciful enough,
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Хэрэв энэ тийм ч гоц гойд
санагдахгүй байгаа бол
02:48
where do you think we're going to go?
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бид хаашаа чиглэнэ гэж
та бодож байна?
02:50
Well, you're going to have your own personal matter fabricator.
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Та хувийн матери үйлдвэрлэгчтэй
болох нь дээ.
02:55
Beam me up, Scotty.
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За, би сансрын хөлөг рүүгээ явлаа.
02:57
(Applause)
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(Алга ташилт)
Translated by Oyun-Erdene Namsrai
Reviewed by Indra Ganzorig

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Lee Cronin - Chemist
A professor of chemistry, nanoscience and chemical complexity, Lee Cronin and his research group investigate how chemistry can revolutionize modern technology and even create life.

Why you should listen

Lee Cronin's lab at the University of Glasgow does cutting-edge research into how complex chemical systems, created from non-biological building blocks, can have real-world applications with wide impact. At TEDGlobal 2012, Cronin shared some of the lab's latest work: creating a 3D printer for molecules. This device -- which has been prototyped -- can download plans for molecules and print them, in the same way that a 3D printer creates objects. In the future, Cronin says this technology could potentially be used to print medicine -- cheaply and wherever it is needed. As Cronin says: "What Apple did for music, I'd like to do for the discovery and distribution of prescription drugs."

At TEDGlobal 2011, Cronin shared his lab's bold plan to create life. At the moment, bacteria is the minimum unit of life -- the smallest chemical unit that can undergo evolution. But in Cronin's emerging field, he's thinking about forms of life that won't be biological. To explore this, and to try to understand how life itself originated from chemicals, Cronin and others are attempting to create truly artificial life from completely non-biological chemistries that mimic the behavior of natural cells. They call these chemical cells, or Chells. 

Cronin's research interests also encompass self-assembly and self-growing structures -- the better to assemble life at nanoscale. At the University of Glasgow, this work on crystal structures is producing a raft of papers from his research group. He says: "Basically one of my longstanding research goals is to understand how life emerged on planet Earth and re-create the process."

Read the papers referenced in his TEDGlobal 2102 talk:

Integrated 3D-printed reactionware for chemical synthesis and analysis, Nature Chemistry

Configurable 3D-Printed millifluidic and microfluidic ‘lab on a chip’ reactionware devices, Lab on a Chip

More profile about the speaker
Lee Cronin | Speaker | TED.com